This invention relates to animal physiological monitoring and identification devices and, more particularly, to a system and method for monitoring one or more physiological parameters of each of a plurality of animals and for providing means of observing those animals which have parameters which are outside of predetermined limits. The system of this invention also comprises means to identify said monitored animals.
Prior devices and systems for monitoring animal data have been concentrated primarily in the area of wildlife biosystems, primarily utilized to obtain movement and animal ID data. In these systems radio tags are used as the means of obtaining source data for animal movement studies. Such wildlife tag uses have produced significant improvements in implantable transmitters, receivers for picking up low level signals from the animal transmitters, and associated telemetry improvements. The state of the art in this area is now well developed, and it is known that implanted devices can be confidently utilizied in free moving animals. There has been a lesser amount of activity in the area of farm animals, i.e., herds which are confined generally in terms of the area of movement of the individual animals. There is some limited patent literature in this area, showing the use of attached or implanted devices. However, there has been a lack of, and there remains a substantial need for, a commercially acceptable system for accurate monitoring and identifying on a group or herd basis. Further, there has been no acceptable means enabling the system manager, e.g. farmer, to go out into the field and identify individual animals on the basis of sensed physiological parameters and their associated identification codes.